The venerable Martti Ahtisaari and the distinguished co-authors of "An EU-Turkey Reset"say much which is valid and with which I could agree.
However, instead of urging EU member states to engage more actively with the Cypriot government to bring about the necessary change enabling the opening of chapters 23 and 24 of the accession talks,would it not be more fair and proper,and ineed realistic,to meaningfully engage with the Turkish government urging it to comply with its legal obligation under the 2005 Ankara Protocol to recognize the Republic of Cyprus and to open its ports, airports and airspace to its ships and aircraft?

Indeed,a stable democracy in Turkey would be to the interest of Cyprus as well as of the European Union.It is on the basis of this reasoning that Cyprus gave the green light to the opening of the accession process of Turkey.But Turkey has failed to respond,describes the Republic of Cyprus as "defunct" and,as of October last year,has invaded the Exclusive Economic Zone of Cyprus and violated its generally acknowledged sovereign rights in the EEZ.Apart from verbal endorsement of the inter communal talks process,Turkey has done nothing on substance to enable these talks to have any prospect of success by putting forward anachronistic and untenable conditions.

Going a few years back,Mr Ahtisaari has been consistent in advocating the same line of argument(e.g. "Cold on Turkey"NY Times,11 September 2009). I responded in a letter to the editor of the NY Times (published on 24 September 2009),citing the reasons why the Cyprus problem,despite the existence of many relevant UN Resolutions,remained unsolved because of Turkey's noncompliance and suggesting that a more productive and proper way of advocating Turkey's inclusion into the EU would be to advise Turkey to behave like a European state by complying with the Copenhagen and the other criteria of membership.

I would respectfully suggest the same now.

Andrew Jacovides
Former Ambassador of Cyprus to the UN,the US and Germany
Former Permanent Secretary,Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Please look at from our, Turkish, side. What can EU offer to Turkey? A better economy? Anyone who sees Greece and other peripheral countries will certainly suspect from this argument.
Better security? We are already under NATO umbrella, and still keeping a huge army to protect ourselves.
An advanced democracy? Maybe... However, we learned that democracy can not be injected with aggreements, but with inner developments.
The main reason may be free travel for workers, which is and will not be certainly in the package.
Therefore, apart from an intuitive will to unite with European countries, Turkish people see now little incentives for joining to EU at the moment.

Ridiculous to think let alone say that Cyprus poses biggest obstacle to Turkish accession (para 11). Mighty Cyprus is preventing Turkey from joining. Beautiful thought. Turkey is the biggest obstacle to its own accession. Consider also that everyone else is comfortable hiding behind Cyprus as regards their own reservations about Turkey. Cyprus would love to have a country like Finland, Italy or Austria as its neighbour. A pity that cosignatory Mr Hans van den Broek has forgotten about the Copenhagen criteria. Real pity.

The authors certainly get it all wrong when they argue that "Cyprus has posed the biggest obstacle to Turkish accession. EU member states should engage more actively with the Cypriot government to bring about the necessary change." it is Turkey itself that has been all along responsible for the lack of progress in its EU accession negotiations by behaving domestically and internationally in ways that are anything but European. For example, not only Turkey refuses to recognize Cyprus, an EU member-state, but it has been militarily occupying and forcibly dividing nearly half of Cyprus since 1974. That alone should disqualify Turkey from consideration as an EU member. It should not even be a candidate for membership until it corrects those wrongs and starts behaving like a European state. It is therefore with the government of Turkey that the EU should engage more actively in order to bring about the necessary changes. But the authors deliberately ignore Turkey's military aggression against an EU-member state and call for pressure against Cyprus, the victim of Turkey's aggression. Contrary to their misleading assertions, the facts indicate very clearly that it is Turkey that must be pressured to respect the rule of law both domestically and internationally. The authors got it all wrong in their misleading pro-Turkey advocacy piece. If they care about an "EU-Turkey reset" they should do it the right way: call on Turkey to abide by EU laws, ideals and principles so that it can merit serious consideration for EU accession. If they want Turkey to be embedded within the European family they should urge Turkey to behave accordingly instead of asking the EU to accommodate Turkey's anti-european ways. They can start by demanding the termination of Turkey's decades long military aggression against an EU member, the Republic of Cyprus. Mr. Ahtisaari, a known Turkey advocate, and his co-authors, need to recognize that Turkey's problems with its EU accession process are definitely a self-inflicted wound. Consequently, only Turkey itself can start the process of healing it and resetting its relation with the EU that has, so far, shown unnecessary tolerance toward Ankara's wrong headed atttude.

This article makes the observation that an increasing number of Turkish citizens want closer ties with Europe. The real question is how many Europeans want closer ties with Turkey? Much that represents Turkey is anathema to what many Europeans want. The problem is, the EU has grown from the top down not the bottom up, in other words it has been bureaucratically driven. This top down growth without consulting the hopes and fears of ordinary working class Europeans is what has got the EU into its current mess. The EU will only work if its members all share like minded values. Introducing another member country like Turkey with a very different culture to Europe is not going to strengthen the EU. Rather, it will add further fuel to a fire already being fanned by extreme right wing secessionist parties in Europe. These parties increasingly draw their support from ordinary working class Europeans who are frightened that the European values they believe in are being incessantly eroded.

Turkey is a key political Partner for the EU. Everybody knows it, and everybody knows that the turkey´s citizen will be always totally different than a western European Citizen. Most of the People from Turkey will never accept the western values as a part of a modern country.
Moreover, Turkey´s politicians could not image a Country without Islamic Religion as a central part of their manipulation Tools.

Martti Ahtisaari, Emma Bonino and Albert Rohan urge EU leaders for a "reset" with Turkey, as it is due to host this year's G20 summit in Antalya in November. In recent years the "EU and Turkey are drifting apart", rendering cooperation more and more difficult.
A decade ago, it was quite different. Turkey aspired to join the European family since 1987, when it applied for full EEC membership. Its candidacy was confirmed in 1999 and the Turkish parliament approved reforms in 2002 to bring them more into line with EU norms. Talks on Turkey's EU accession began in 2005 after intense bargaining - EU demanded that Turkey recognise Cyprus as an EU member and extend a customs union to all new member states. Brussels partially froze the talks with Turkey in 2006, when Ankara did not open its ports and airports to traffic from Cyprus. They resumed after Turkey gave in. Later in 2010 Wikileaks disclosed that France and Austria had deliberately blocked Turkey's accession. The bill passed by the French parliament in 2011, criminalising the denial of the Armenian genocide had further enraged Ankara. In 2012 an EU Commission report revealed concerns about democracy and human rights for women and ethnic minorities and urged Ankara for judicial reforms. Germany condemned the crackdown on mass protests in June 2013, prompting many EU politicians to offer Turkey a partnership deal instead of a full membership. The accession talks were put on hold and restarted months later.
As the civil war in Syria spiralled out of control, EU leaders need Turkey to police the 900-km border with its neighbour, preventing an influx of Western volunteers from flocking to ISIS. Yet it had become obvious that Recep Tayyip Erdogan's priorities were diametrically opposed to those of the Western leaders. He fears more the strength of the Kurds than ISIS dominance at his doorstep, and he is obssessed with toppling Bashar al-Assad's regime. In the wake of a falling-out with the West, he has curried favour with Vladimir Putin, who has become an international pariah following Russia's conflict with Ukraine. Despite Ankara's course of action, the authors claim that more and more Turks realise that there is "no attractive alternative to the EU and close cooperation with the transatlantic community". They hope to bring Ankara in from the cold and into the EU-fold. Whether Europeans want Turkey be part of the EU is another question, fearing it may change the whole character of the Union, as Erdogan doesn't seem to share "common European values".

The last thing Europe needs is Turkey inside the EU. The ease with which Erdogan has turned against the West, become vicious towards Israel, has instituted authoritarian rule and has Islamised the country shows that Turkey has nothing to do with European values and should be kept out.

Turkey is a mid-eastern country. It is as authoritarian as they choose, and the majority of the population loves it that way, including the 1100-rooms presidential palace. Turkey is also as islamic as they want to be. The westernized Istanbul-elite is not Turkey and it is up to them to leave it as it is, or to change it if they can.

I agree, as Turkey he become less westernised, as it saw it's future as a leader of an Eastern block. Russia will woo Turkey as Putin needs to keep the Boshperous open to their shipping. Thereby keeping Sebastapol open for business.

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